Sudden loss of coolant...and power steering...and grill!

General discussion about our beloved Tercel 4WD cars
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BlackStraw
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Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: BC Canada

Sudden loss of coolant...and power steering...and grill!

Post by BlackStraw »

My (previously) handsome Tercel had a low-speed collision with the back of a full-size truck a few days ago, the trailer hitch hit the fan straight on and pushed it through the radiator. You can even see the indents of the 4 fan blades. Still runs okay, luckily I was only about 10 minutes from home so managed to drive it back with no coolant, with a break halfway for a few hours to cool down.
I'll try and patch it up, but don't want to spend a lot more money on it, as it was kinda my temporary winter beater car. No radiators available in the local scrapyards, it looks like I can get a new one from RockAuto for around $120CDN. Once the weather gets better I'll be able to work on it a bit.
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Petros
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My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: Sudden loss of coolant...and power steering...and grill!

Post by Petros »

are you the one looking to get a 4wd Tercel? if so, go ahead and by a new radiator if that is only one you can get. when you finally get your T4wd, you can swap the new rad into your permanant car, and sell this one with the used radiator.

I have a single row used radiator you can have for $30 if you want it. The 4wd should get the double row, but in your climate the single row rad will work fine in a 2wd Tercel. I live about 2 hours south of Van Couver canada, in fact I was in vancourver yesterday visiting relatives.

let me know if you want to get it, it would be less troublesome for you to drive across the boarder to get it rather than mail it.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
donnyre
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Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 1:32 am
My tercel:: 95 Tercel

Re: Sudden loss of coolant...and power steering...and grill!

Post by donnyre »

What he said, or try to patch it for now. There are also online junk yards that you might want to check out.
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BlackStraw
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Joined: Fri Aug 07, 2015 10:42 pm
Location: BC Canada

Re: Sudden loss of coolant...and power steering...and grill!

Post by BlackStraw »

Thanks for the offer Petros....I may take you up on that if I can't find anything locally in a reasonable amount of time. Any chance you've also got spare corner marker lights? Would have to be mail/shipped though - unfortunately not really practical for me to drive to WA, I'm on the island so it would be close to a 4 hour trip and $80 ferry (each way) to even get from my house to the CAN/USA border crossing.
Did get a couple of leads yesterday to check out, including 1 small auto wrecker in Sooke that I had gotten old tercel parts from 10 years ago, but completely forgot about.
(I'm not the guy who posted recently looking to specifically buy a T4WD - although if one turned up nearby in decent condition, I definitely would have bought it this week)
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Petros
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Posts: 11930
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 6:31 pm
My tercel:: '84 Tercel4wd w/extensive mods
Location: Arlington WA USA

Re: Sudden loss of coolant...and power steering...and grill!

Post by Petros »

it would only be worth if if you were coming this way for some other reason. shipping it to you, only about 60 miles from me (if you are near Victoria) would likely cost $50-60. see if you can find something locally, or if there is a rad shop that can fix yours. There used to be radiator shops that could acturally repair radiators.
'87 Tercel 4wd SR5 (current engine swap project)
'84 Tercel 4wd (daily driver, with on going mods)
'92 Mazda MPV 4wd (wife's daily driver)
'85 Tercel 4wd DLX auto(daughter's daily driver)
'01 Honda Civic (other daughter's daily driver)
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